Wordless Wednesday

Here's my little booger bug! She's had a cold and her little upper lip is raw from all the snot and crusty boogers and getting it wiped clean, which she HATES! But she's just so darn cute!

She wouldn't quite smile for me tonight. This is as close as we came to one.

9 months old already!!

Addison, you are nine months old!!

I cannot believe what a big girl you are turning into! Here are you nine month stats:

*You weigh 19 lbs 9 oz; 75th percentile

*You are 28 inches long; 75th percentile

*You can crawl around really good and zoom right into areas that Daddy and I have yet to baby-proof. I think you just know places you aren't supposed to be. You are very curious and want to touch everything. You definitely let us know when you want something! Such a stinker!

*You are going to be walking very soon. You can hold onto us and walk very good and you zoom around in your walker.

*You are eating cereal puffs and yogurt melts (along with other soft table food in tiny pieces) like crazy. You grab them up in your hand and then shove them in your mouth. You also drink out of an open cup or through a straw really well. We just need to work on the whole back-wash thing. You like a sippy cup too.

*You have discovered that you can sit up from laying down. And also from sitting, you can pull up to standing. This means that you decided that sleeping was for losers and you certainly didn't want to be a loser so instead of sleeping you would sit up in your crib and clap your hands and talk to your blanket and then stand up on the side of your crib and call for me or Daddy to come get you. You did this night after night leading up to a 3:00am wake-up call where I was lowering your crib mattress so that you didn't tumble right over the edge. Now we can leave you in your crib to calm yourself down to go to sleep (just as Dr. Hunsinger prescribed (after she scolded Mommy about going into your room and rocking you back to sleep every night at 2:00am when you cry for me)).

*You are still a very happy little baby and you Daddy and I are still very very much enamored with you!! We love you so much baby girl! And stop growing up so fast, okay??

This and That

So, it has been a while since I've posted anything. I've been trying to take a break from blogging and not put pressure on myself to get posts up. I tend to go through phases when I get stressed out easier than normal and I can feel myself in one of those phases. I have been busy with other things such as:

The most beautiful baby in the world, my Addison!! She is a crawling a lot now. Well, more of an army-crawl but she's getting very speedy and scooting around on the hardwoods before I can blink my eyes! She tried eating puffs this weekend and was really good at picking them up but couldn't quite figure out how to get them from between her thumb and forefinger and into her mouth. She mainly just had fun moving them around the highchair tray and getting them all stuck in her hands. Darling girl! Such a little happy sweetheart! Oh, and I asked Jordan to ask Addison up to her room and change her diaper last night before bed. I went up a minute or two later and I can hear him singing to her. "Addison smells like bird doo doo, yes she do, bird doo doo..." I was hiding out in the hall way next to her room listening and about peed in my pants cause I was laughing so hard! It was so funny! He calls her "Stinky" all the time and I told him that she's not going to like that very much longer when she figures out what he's saying! We sing Super Stink (to the tune of Super Freak) to her all the time! "She's a super stink! Super stink! She's super stink-ayyy!" She really doesn't stink except when she has pooped in her diaper (and sometimes down her legs, up her belly or up her back), but it's our cute little song and she'll just smile at us!

I have been super busy at work because I switched stations with one of the other tellers and I now have a phone right next to me that I answer all day. Most people would get annoyed with a phone ringing in their ear all day, but I actually like to answer the phones. It lets me get a lot of practice in with multi-tasking!

Tripp had to be taken to the vet on Tuesday. I was cleaning off his gunky eye boogers and noticed (like two weeks ago) that he had this nasty, crusty, oozing spot below his right eye. When I went to clean it off, it kind of peeled off like one big scab and there was a sore under it. So I've been stressing trying to find the time (in midst of all the snow and ice) that I could get him to the vet. Jordan finally took him and she said that it was just allergies (Allergies cause the horrible, stinky eye drainage

I have also been reading a lot lately. I just got done reading "My Sister's Keeper" by Jody Picoult and I will just say that it is so very different than the movie. Not sure which I like better. Now I'm reading "The Undomestic Goddess" by Sophie Kinsella. I have to always be reading something. I have certain times during the day at work when I have to go and pump and I get sooo bored so I have to have something to read to help pass the time.

Snow, snow, ice and more snow! It's been like an Arctic tundra outside for the past week here in, that's right, NORTH CAROLINA! What is the deal? I'm so tired of snow. I think it's contributed to me being slightly stressed. I have been having to drive in it all week and the roads have not been good. I'm so thankful that we've managed to get around okay and without incident!

Tomorrow, we're going to be gone all day; first getting our taxes done, then off to Charlotte for my sister's Birthday party! Fun times! I just hope the roads aren't bad and we'll be able to get around safely! Hope you have a great weekend!

Just another SUPER CUTE day!

This is going to be full of rambling randomness (don't you just love a good alliteration?)

First, If you want to see a SUPER CUTE little girl playing in a laundry basket go to my previous post and see the pictures I just added! She's such a little ham! (except not in this picture. She smiled really big right after I took this. That picture is in the other post.)(See all her fuzzy hair. Can't wait to put a bow in it!)

Second, if you are in the market for some SUPER CUTE scrubs tops and bottoms, go to my craigslist ad and send me an offer and you can be the proud new owner!

I have had those scrubs sitting on a shelf in my closet for 3 and 1/2 YEARS! I have been meaning to list them on Craigslist.org for forever and I finally did it! That took me about and hour and a half to create (mainly because I had to list out exactly what I had. I got a bit OCD, but hopefully it will mean a quick sale!!). I am so proud!

Third, I keep looking at this SUPER CUTE (haha, yeah right!!) smirking/scowling old man named Joe Biden (during the State of the Union Address) and all I can think of is the Jeff Dunham character, Walter:

I just think they look so much alike. If you have never seen Walter in a skit, you may not see the resemblance as much. But if you have you know what I mean; they have similar mannerisms (if a puppet can have mannerisms??

Forth, on a sad note I want to ask for prayers for a friend of mine, Mandy. She just had to deliver her SUPER CUTE baby girl via C-section at only 30 weeks.
Little Mackenzie Faith is only 1.9 lbs, 12.1 inches. I don't really know many details, but I know she is in NICU and needs to be lifted up to God's healing hands!

I'm about to get to bed. I'm pretty tired even though I went to bed at 8:45 last night. Crazy early, I know. Addison went to bed at 7:45 and again at 8:15, and I was just so tired I went up 30 minutes later. She and I had a 4:30 AM pow-wow, though so I didn't wake up quite as rested as I had wished. It's crazy, but I almost enjoy my night time meetings with her. She is just so sweet and happy and I love to watch her as she nurses (when she wakes up at 2:30 tonight, I'm going to kick myself for writing that on here! :) ). Thank you God, for beautiful HEALTHY (and SUPER CUTE :) ) baby girls!!

Little Miss Silly Pants

So Addison is just adorable. I know everyone already knows this, but I have to say it!

We had a really good weekend. Saturday she and I met my dad for breakfast at Bojangles (yumm, sausage gravy biscuits!) then went back home and did laundry and cleaned and played. I cleaned out her dresser and closet, which was a huge undertaking. She did so good the whole time. She played with toys in her crib for about 45 minutes then played in the laundry basket, haha. I took pictures of her in there while she was having a blast and will post them later.

She kept trying to pull up on the edge of the basket. She is getting so big and is turning into a...TODDLER!

I now have about 4 large diaper boxes full of clothes that Addison can no longer fit into. I'm keeping them for hopes that maybe one day I'll be able to use them for another little girl. It was sad to see some of those adorable outfits being boxed up, knowing that there is the possibility that I may never have the chance to dress another little baby in them. I'll deal with that on another day, though. For now, boxes go in the attic with out another thought. I was also able to bring out some clothes I'd been waiting for her to grow into.

It was so nice to be at home and have motivation to be productive while being there all day. I have a hard time finding the energy and drive to get a lot of housework done on the weekends when I actually have the time to do it. But after last weekend's 7 load laundry marathon, I decided to make sure I stay on top of it. We'll see how long that lasts, but for now I'm doing good with it and not even dreading it. I feel good when I've been productive (as long as I ignore the backache from carrying all those clothes up and down the stairs a million times, haha). I ended up washing nearly every blanket in my house, as well as the clothes we dirtied up over the last week. It was so nice to feel caught up.

Sunday was a bit different. Addison has been having a hard time going to sleep at bedtime (ex: She didn't go to sleep until after 10 on Friday night. We started the normal 20 minute bedtime routine at 8. Every time we held her, she would go to sleep but every time we laid her down in her crib and walked away, she would wake up and scream.) I think all of this is from teething (mainly because I don't know what else it would be). Back to Sunday. Addison was very clingy and hard to satisfy all day. She was extremely fussy on Sunday morning, refusing to nap and I since I woke up feeling super crummy, we didn't make it to church. It wasn't a horrible day and Addison wasn't bad just high maintenance and needy. I still enjoyed my day at home with her little sweet self. I like to get a taste of what its like to be a stay at home mom. I can't decide if I would love it or hate it. Most days I lean toward the loving it. I can dream right?

Last night, Addison was so much fun! We ate at Jordan's parents. They have the walker for when Gena keeps Addison and because she can get around better at their house. We put her in there and she zooms all over that house. She has already claimed a couple drawers in the kitchen and will open them and reach in and pull out whatever she can grab. She was in a great mood and back to her-in-to-everything-self.

After we got back home Addison was playing in the living room floor while Jordan was watching her and I was getting a load of laundry ready to was (I know, it really NEVER ends). As I walked through the living room with my arms full of clothes, I was watching Addison play.

I see her look intently at something on the rug.

Then I see her pudgy hand reach out and grab (with her fore finger and thumb...Developmental milestone: pincer grasp, check!) a tiny little piece of paper.

As I drop the huge amount of clothes in my arms and run over to her, she does what she does with everything she grabs, puts it in her mouth. I got to her just as she popped this tiny little piece of candy wrapper and proceed to pry open her mouth and look down her throat. I see it stuck on the roof of her mouth, the tiny yellow culprit, and feel the pull of certain chocking and suffocation looming in the air. I yell for Jordan to come over and help me pin her down to get it out of her mouth. Addison is trying to figure out why I won't let her sit up and play and is refusing to be still. Reason comes back to me and I realize that 1) Addison is NOT going to be still enough for me to safely put my hand in her mouth to grab it and get it out, 2) I'm pretty sure that you are never supposed to stick your finger in a baby's mouth in order to retrieve a foreign object in fear of lodging said object further down baby's throat and 3) the little piece of candy wrapper is not being swallowed or chocked on (yet) therefore I do not need to freak out (yet)! So we calmly let her play while we watched her like a hawk. I made a few attempts to swipe the paper out of her mouth, but couldn't get it. I had to walk into the kitchen for a minute and I heard her coughing, so I ran back over to her. Jordan was holding her with a triumphant look on his face and said he got it. Addison was still trying to figure out what just happened and really just wanted to play some more.

Then I finally put her to bed and it went a lot easier than it has been. I went to bed at 11:15 and woke up around midnight-ish to sheets/blankets moving around. I turned on the video monitor and Addison is rolling around like crazy.

She wasn't being vocal at all, so I tried to roll over and go back to sleep, but she just kept moving around. So about 30 minutes later I looked at her again. She had turned completely around and scooted down to the other end of her crib where she found the toys she'd been playing with form the day before. She was wide awake and having the best time playing with her toys. As tired as I was, I couldn't do anything but laugh at her. She's just so darn cute! She was rolling around and started to talk to her toys as she picked them up. After about 15 minutes of just watching her play, I went in the there and she greeted me with the biggest grin ever! My heart just melts every time she smiles, especially when its at me! I nursed her and she calmed down and finally when back to sleep after I laid her down.

That silly girl! She is into everything! I love her so much and the though of anything happening to her terrifies me! This is where I trust in God to keep her safe. This is where I ask God for guidance as a parent. This is where I plead with Him not to take her away from me.

My MLKJ Day

This past Monday was a holiday (Martin Luther King Jr. Day) so I got to enjoy a day off work with my Addison (and Jordan too)! I had arranged to meet up with my friend Keli that used to work at the Credit Union with me. You remember her from here and here. So Jordan, Addison and I met up in Burlington at Alamance Crossing with Keli, Nicholas and Emily and and Ashlea, Scottie and Caden. We ate at Mimi's Cafe. I had never been there, but wow, it was soo good! I had Salmon with a sweet ginger glaze. They had the biggest menu! We had a really nice time there catching up and talking about the new babies! Ashlea is due in March with sweet baby Jaxten and Keli is due at the end of May with their sweet baby boy! I brought Keli all of my maternity clothes so that she can get as good of wear out of mine as I got out of hers when I was pregnant! Caden and Emily are both 3 1/2 years old and they had the best time playing with each other. They are both so adorable and good kids!

We also went to Peaches 'n Cream Children's clothing boutique. It had the CUTEST clothes in there! I only ended up buying one outfit for Addison, but if they had had more items for a good price in the right sizes, I would have gotten a lot more. I'll take a picture and upload it later of the Christmas outfit I got her for next year or the year after. It's a 2T, so I don't know when she'll be able to wear it. I would guess in two years when she is 2 1/2.

We got ready to all go our separate ways and Jordan and I didn't even make it out of the parking lot before Addison decided to cry for the first time that day. She had been so good and down a jar of applesauce and 1/2 a jar of green beans baby foods at lunch! But it a been a couple hours since then and she was hungry and wanted her Mama, so I nursed her in the car in the back corner of the McDonald's' parking lot! Since we were there, Jordan decided we needed hot fudge sundaes, so he went and got us some while Addison nursed. She was really sleepy and went to sleep right after we got going.

I hate that I didn't get any pictures while we were together! I even remembered my camera but it stayed in the car the whole time. We had a great time and will definitely meet back up soon!

All Wrapped Up

So I blogged a week or so ago that we were going to stop using the swaddle blanket when Addison sleeps. Well, we have regressed and I am okay with that, as long as she is sleeping. After about a week of Addison waking up for an hour every morning around 3:30/4:00, I decided to try swaddling again. I was nursing/rocking her to sleep one night last week and she was so tired but just couldn't wind down. Her little arms and legs were just moving all around and she couldn't seem to settle herself down. After 20 minutes of her fighting sleep and me trying to rock her and settle her down (she wasn't fussy, just trying to play and get to things around) i saw the swaddle blanket laying on the floor next to her crib. I looked at it for a minute then gave in and swaddled her. She was asleep within a few minutes slept great for the next few nights.

Last night and the night before, she has woken up around midnight/1:00 in a very foul mood. I don't know what has been triggering this, but I hope it doesn't last (although I don't feel as exhausted as I thought I would. Maybe my body is just adjusting).

Everyone told me that her sleeping habits would change as she got older and that she may start waking up at random stages throughout her first years, but I was skeptical. Not my perfect baby. Oh no, she is such a good sleeper! Nothing could change that. Let me just say that I will keep an open mind when hearing tales of child behavioral patterns and I will not think we are "above" the norm (NOT that I in any way think that she is better than any other child! I just thought that once she started sleeping so good, she would continue to do so). As good as Addison is, I know that no babies are perfect (although I have to say she is pretty darn close in my book!).

We were pretty busy this weekend. We got Chinese food (Sesame Chicken, yummmm) on Friday night and ate with my parents. While I was waiting for Jordan to get off work, I went next door to the nail place and the workers there have become friends with Jordan and I so they offered to paint my nails for me. I told them at first that I didn't have time because I had to get Addison, but I really wanted to and they told me it would only be a few minutes. So I caved. (right, like it was that hard of a decision to make!! :) ). I had to wait for our call in Chinese order to be ready anyways. So I picked out a dark purple and I love it!

On the way home from my parents, I tried using my phone to call Jordan and it would not make any calls or send any texts, so I turned it off and tried to turn it back on. Once the phone was turned off, it would not turn back on at all! I was so mad! We don't have a home phone, so even after I got home I couldn't get in touch with him. The battery had just been charged the night before and wasn't dead, so I had no clue what was wrong with it. After Jordan got home, he messed with it and finally got it to work. It stopped working again on Monday morning when I really needed it, but after about 10 minutes we got it working again. I've been planning on getting a new phone and this put me over the edge so Jordan started looking on ebay and we found this:

It's not a new phone and it's the one for Verizon (not Sprint like in the picture). I'm really excited about having a full texting keypad. That will make it so much easier and quicker to text and since I now have an unlimited texting plan, so I plan on using it more now.

On Saturday we got Time Warner Cable installed and I am so excited about it! Not only are we going to be getting internet about 15 times faster than what we did have and not only are we getting way more channels, some of which are HD, than we were getting, but we are gong to be saving about $50 a month! It's great! Now I just have to get used to the new remote and remember all the shows I need to set up to record on my new DVR.

After the cable guy came (haha, that made me think of that stupid Jim Carrey movie), I went and got my hair cut and got low-lights put in. I've never gone darker before, so I was a little nervous, but I like the result. It is very subtle and I think I will actually go darker next time. This appointment was way overdue considering the last time I had anything at all done to my hair was in April when I was 8 months pregnant! The pictures in Addison's Eight Month Post are with my new hair. You really can't tell a whole lot of difference, but I can.

Mom went with me and ran errands with Addison while I was getting my hair cut. Afterwards we ate lunch at Qdoba's then went to Babies R us and Ross. I got a few little outfits for Addison and finally got the perfect purple bag I've been wanting. It's super cute and just the right size and shape, and it was only $18!! I thought that was a great price for a leather Nine West bag!! Little things make me happy!

On a sad note, Jordan called me while I was out and said his Grandpa (Pete, who was taken to the hospital for congestive heart failure on Friday) was not dong well. Gena (Jordan's mom) went to visit him in the hospital and walked into the room to find Pete laying on the ground with blood around him. He had apparently been trying to get to something and fell out of the bed, hitting his head and busting it open on the floor. The worst part was that the nurses didn't even know anything had happened. We don't know how long he laid there. He was moved to intermediary ICU. Now Gena and her brother have to decide whether or not to put a feeding tube in. It is such an awful place to be right now and I cannot imagine how horrible it would be to be in that situation. Please pray for the whole family for guidance and acceptance.

Sunday was my laundry catch up day. After church and lunch I got home at 3:00, put Addison in her crib for a nap and started on the huge pile of stuff/clothes that is my house. I did (brace yourself here) SEVEN loads of laundry and then one more on Monday!! I was so behind! I got everything in our room cleaned up and put away and cleaned our bathroom (which no longer has patches of floor peaking up between piles of clothes). I got all of the loads of clothes folded/hung up and put away except for Addison's clothes. By the time I got them clean and dry she was back in her crib for the night. They are folded in a basket outside of her room and I am hoping to tackle cleaning out her dresser tonight. I just can't seem to ever catch up. I guess that's all just part of being a mom, right?

So our weekend was great! I so enjoy the time I get to spend doing "nothing" with my little family! I just love those two so much!